The Democratisation of Turkey and the European Union
At the official handover ceremony between the Slovenian Presidency and the current French Presidency, on 30 June 2008, the French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, upon symbolically accepting a relay baton and an EU flag from his Slovenian counterpart commented that the European Union was “in average shape”. Kouchner’s sentiments echoed those of Nicholas Sarkozy who speaking on French television suggested that “something isn’t right, something isn’t right at all.” In an interview to the Italian daily Corriere della Serra on 25 June 2008, on the eve of the Euro 2008 semi-finals which pitted Turkey against Germany and Russia against Spain, Joerg Haider, the Austrian far-right politician, questioned why Turkey and Russia were allowed to participate in the European Soccer Championships by asking “what have these two countries got in common with Europe?” Though seemingly unrelated, the two aforementioned references in fact have much to do with each other. On the one hand, they describe a ...